SUNDRE – Although persons crimes reported to the Sundre RCMP increased slightly in the second quarter over last year, property crimes were way down as local Mounties also endeavour to raise awareness about fraud and increase patrols on the Highway 27-Main Avenue corridor.
Sgt. Randy Poon, acting commander of the Sundre RCMP detachment, presented to council on Dec. 4 during a regular meeting a report recapping the department’s second quarter activities.
Part of the detachment’s efforts to connect more with residents involves participating in community engagement events such as safety presentations to students and fraud awareness for seniors to get local police’s presence felt in town through initiatives other than enforcement alone, he said.
As a result of community input gleaned through outreach and consultations, the sergeant informed council he’d asked his members to increase traffic enforcement patrols along the Highway 27-Main Avenue corridor, where construction of a major overhaul of underground services and the road itself are on hold through the winter with temporary stop signs installed until construction on the permanent concrete roundabouts resumes next spring.
The detachment also continues to work with the community peace officer on problem properties and provides assistance with service of documents, with meetings expected to be held with Mountain View County to discuss a property where the county’s noise bylaws are consistently being violated, reads part of his report.
“One of the pressing matters that came up in the quarter was a problem property with regards to noise complaints,” he told council.
Additionally, the Sundre department – whose coverage area includes Mountain View County and a portion of Clearwater County – reported having received 14 calls for service related to mental health issues, with two of those instances involving assistance from the Regional Police and Crisis Team (RPACT) based out of Rocky Mountain House, according to his report in council’s agenda.
“We try to look at other ways to assist people with mental health issues, where criminal code enforcement is not necessarily the best approach,” Poon told council.
Providing a breakdown of statistics comparing this year’s second quarter with 2022 spanning the months of July to September, Poon’s report showed a decrease to 191 from 246 in the total number of Criminal Code matters.
And while the reported number of persons crimes – which includes offences ranging from uttering threats to sexual assault – increased to 47 from 34, the number of reported property crimes plummeted to 103 from 171.
“For me that is a surprise, that is a nice thing to see,” Poon said about the big drop in property crime for the quarter.
Instances of fraud also reportedly slightly increased. However, as cyber crime tends to be international in nature, the RCMP is limited in its ability to respond and thus endeavours to enhance awareness through education so people better understand what warning signs to look out for and how to respond.
But there are some cases of local fraud as well, which police are better able to get a handle on, he said.
“Those are very easy for our members to investigate,” he said. “It’s the ones that are happening overseas through emails and phone calls and so forth that are difficult to do.”
And while the quarter in 2023 saw a marginal increase to 13 from 10 last year in traffic offences relating to the Criminal Code, there was a big drop to 113 from 144 in the number of provincial code traffic matters.
With regards to staffing, the sergeant said Sundre’s detachment had for a period of time as a result of transfers, resignations, as well as off-duty sick time been reduced to four members from eight; Poon himself had stepped in on an interim basis when Sgt. Trent Sperlie took a leave.
However, there since have been new members come aboard, with a new officer expected to begin their duties this month.
“That brings our constable levels right up to full strength,” he said.
“Looking into the future, we’re in good shape.”
And Sperlie has also been on a gradual return to a full-time position as the detachment’s commander and is essentially back at the helm, said Poon.
Following the presentation, Coun. Owen Petersen asked about the nature of RPACT.
“It’s not a government organization; it’s actually a part of the RCMP,” said Poon, adding policing agencies all over have increasingly become aware of the fact that many of the individuals officers regularly respond to struggle with mental health issues, some of which are associated with addictions.
“What we’ve recognized is not everyone should be charged,” he said, adding different methods of encouraging and enabling users to get clean on the path to improving their mental health have to be considered.
For example, some such individuals have conditions like schizophrenia that require treatment involving potent medications that in turn can impact the person physically in an unpleasant experience that pushes them to turn to illicit drugs for relief, he said.
“There has to be a different way of approaching this; we can’t keep sending people to jail and then ignore them, right?” he said.
“So, this is why that RPACT unit was created.”
In a nutshell, RPACT involves an officer who determines whether the call should be considered a Criminal Code or mental health issue, and in instances involving the latter to work with an embedded mental health nurse on the call.
“I’ll be honest, a lot of it has to deal with the person voluntarily agreeing to what we want to do,” said Poon.
“For the most part from what I’ve seen, is that most of them do want to do that. Unfortunately, whether it’s physical or whether it’s a mental health issue, sometimes they kind of fall off and then we revisit them.”
The point of the unit is to consider and identify potential alternatives to laying charges in an effort to help the individual, which is better not only for that person but the whole community, he said.
Petersen also asked about the municipality’s Community Standards Bylaw, which was up for discussion later on the council meeting’s agenda, and more specifically what the sergeant thought about the section pertaining to a curfew.
“It is of value for us, especially with young people,” said Poon, later adding that a curfew enables police to remove a child from the streets and return them to the care of parents or guardians.
“Without that sort of bylaw, there isn’t really anything valuable we can use as alternative,” he said, adding there is nothing in the Criminal Code addressing youth walking the streets in the middle of the night, unless of course they are for example caught vandalizing property.
Police can also consider leaning on social services if child abandonment is deemed a possibility, he said.
“But does that give us the authority to engage with that young person and escort them somewhere? Not necessarily,” he said, adding police can otherwise only escalate in the event of more serious issues such as neglectful and/or intoxicated parents.
Coun. Jaime Marr also asked if the sergeant had noticed whether the revived Sundre Youth Justice Committee had begun to have an impact, to which Poon replied there seemed to have been a decrease in youth crime this year over last.
“If there’s a different way we can deal with the youth to kind of get them back on the straight and narrow, that would be fantastic,” he said.
“And that certainly is one method rather than going through the criminal code and laying a charge.”
